(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus and, in particular, to a display apparatus that can dissipate heat efficiently from a tape carrier package (TCP) driver integrated circuit (IC) providing an address voltage to a display panel.
(b) Description of the Related Art
One common type of display apparatus is a plasma display apparatus. It is well known that a plasma display apparatus uses plasma generated by gas discharge to produce an image on a plasma display panel (PDP). In the plasma display apparatus, electrodes printed on the PDP are conventionally connected electrically to a driving circuit by a flexible printed circuit (FPC). The FPC has an IC for providing an address voltage to selectively form a wall voltage in each pixel in accordance with signals controlled by the driving circuit.
Exemplary structures using the FPC and the IC to provide the voltage are a chip on board (COB) in which the IC is installed on a printed circuit board (PCB), and a chip on film (COF) in which the IC is installed on a film composing the FPC. Another exemplary structure used to provide voltage is the TCP which is small and has a low manufacturing cost.
However, a COF, COB, or TCP installed on the chassis base produces electromagnetic interference (EMI) as well as a large amount of heat. This is partially due to a gas discharge occurring at least 8 times in 1/60 second (1 TV field) which generates more than 256 gradations in the PDP.
Therefore, a reinforcing plate is installed in the COB or COF to reinforce the structure of the chassis base and to fix the COB or COF onto the chassis base. The reinforcing plate also serves to efficiently dissipate heat generated in the IC.
In prior devices, the heat generated in the TCP driver IC has been dissipated by attaching a solid heat-dissipating sheet, such as a heat sink, to the TCP. Compared to the size of the IC, however, the heat sink was excessively large due to its low heat dissipation efficiency and its inability at smaller sizes to cope with the amount of the heat generated by the IC. Heat generation then needs to be reduced to prevent a malfunction or breakdown of the TCP driver IC. However, this results in the adoption of an inferior algorithm for picture quality and may cause an overall degradation in the picture quality.